‘Carter Beats the Devil’ by Glen David Gold

At the start of this book, it is 1923, and the acclaimed magician, Carter the Great, puts on a grand show, in which President Harding comes on stage to take part in the final illusion. Hours after the show, the President is dead, and Carter is under suspicion of causing his death, and has to flee the Secret Service.

After this tantalising peek into the life of Charles Carter the adult, the story of his life begins, from his childhood, where he turns to magic to defeat loneliness and a servant who bullies Charles and his brother. His rise to fame is not without problems, and he suffers professional and personal triumphs and defeats.

As the story progresses up to and beyond the night of the President’s death, layer upon layer is added, including such story lines as the invention of television, and the book becomes a sprawling novel, with Carter right at it’s heart…

This is a hard book for my to review, because I have such mixed feelings it. It started promisingly and I felt certain that I was going to love it, but as it progressed I started to feel underwhelmed, and – while I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy lots of it – I was slightly relieved to finish it. Carter the Great was a real person, although this is a highly fictionalised account of his life. Further, President Harding did indeed die under unusual circumstances (or rather, the way his death was immediately handled raises questions), although again, this book deals with it in a fictional manner.

I did think that Carter was an extremely likeable and enjoyable protagonist. He was witty and clever, but also surprisingly vulnerable, and carried a sadness about him, the reason for which is explained in the story. I also liked his brother James, who is a recurring character throughout the story, and Carter’s assistant Ledocq.

The reason that I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped to, was that at times there just seemed to be too much going on. From Secret Service agents (some corrupt, some incompetent, and some under-appreciated) who were trailing Carter, to an old friend who pops up throughout the story, to Carter’s rivalry with fellow magician Mysterioso – there were just so many elements to the story, some of which detracted from the part I was most interested in, which was Carter’s life story.

However, on the plus side, the author had clearly done lots of research about the era, and the popularity of vaudeville shows, where magicians such as Carter made much of their living, and I did enjoy that aspect of the story.

Overall, I would say that there was probably a terrific 400 page book contained within this 500+ page book, and it has certainly received many glowing reviews, but it perhaps wasn’t quite the right fit for me. There was enough here though, that I would certainly read more by this author.

(Author’s blog can be found here. For more information about Carter the Great, please click here.)